10 Hidden Details In Hard Rock Tracks You Never Noticed

When Trent Reznor came to writing the basis of The Downward Spiral, his goal was to create something incredibly dark. From the lyrical structure to the disturbing industrial instrumentation, Reznor's opus packs as much punch as a rock record while capturing all the creepy atmosphere of a horror movie.

That checks out considering that Reznor's sample library ended up pulling from a lot of film scores as well as actual horror movie audio. These range from the title track's ominous dripping sounds coming from the sci-fi film Alien to the opening song "Mr. Self Destruct" opening with the audio of a man being beaten, taken from the film THX 1138. Though all of these effects put the listener on edge from the very beginning, the most famous horror snippet comes on the song "Reptile."

Across the track's runtime, we keep hearing a looped voice that sounds like a woman crying out for help. As the song keeps rising in tension, the voice keeps wailing in your head. When broken down, the actual audio clip comes from the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as one of the victims begins rolling down a hill. These kind of subtle touches are what took the Downward Spiral from a disturbing record to a pitch black masterpiece.